Tea Leaf Green is a band of San Francisco prog-rockers — wait, come back, it's not quite that bad — who've been steeping for more than a decade in a blend of jam-band ramble-craft and breezy pop melody. They've also consistently upped their game from album to album, shed show to shed show. As jam bands go, they're one of the ones you want to see.

In 2007, the band swapped bassists and picked a winner. Reed Mathis (far right in the photo above) had cut himself loose from the renowned Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey over some creative differences, and he wound up jamming with TLG at a Colorado festival. Some support gigs turned into a job, and by the last TLG album, "Radio Tragedy!," Mathis was well-integrated and contributing beautiful folk ballads like "My Oklahoma Home."

I welcome any opportunity to go on about Mathis, because I've never seen him play when he didn't completely jelly my brain. He's a bassist, but he's not a bass player. He doesn't merely keep the groove locked in. He's a wild, free-form, thick-stringed guitar player, equal parts Stravinsky and Hendrix. And a helluva nice guy, to boot.

Just a snatch from a recent conversation — Mathis on the phone this week as the band headed toward Chicago — about keeping his jazz roots, FOMO and the spiritual path of improvisation:

Q:Did you think about a post-Jacob Fred solo career?Mathis: Not really, because for me the most important thing is to be part of a musical collective, like a gang. I don't want to be a sideman or an accompanist, which the bassist is usually expected to be. I want to be free to play my instrument exactly as I am in the moment at all times. Which is selfish, but that's OK. TLG is a safe place to improvise. They don't expect anything from the bass, nothing specific. They also don't expect me to play a song the same way twice. They love surprises, which is the cornerstone of my playing.

Q: Are you jam or jazz?Mathis: A lot of the old Fred fans haven't checked out TLG. They think that's what's happened to me, that I'm in some mediocre jam band playing white boy funk in the back. People say, "Do you miss playing jazz?" The answer is I still am. Every note I play is jazz.

Q: Where does improv fit into our very neat and archived digital world?Mathis: Improv is not that popular a concept, really — even in the "jam band" world. A lot of my friends adore Phish. They go see a Phish concert and they'll be like, "They played that song wrong" or "They messed up that song." I'm like, no, they didn't. They did something new with that song. Everyone claims to like improv, but it really bothers us. In actual practice, it's scary. People want to feel like they're in control or in the know — that's the huge thing for music fans. One writer called it the hipster echo-chamber, writing about Alabama Shakes, saying everyone's in this rush to be hip and into the new hip sh— and nobody wants to feel like they don't know what's happening. That has real power because that's the reality of our day-to-day life, moment to moment. We'll never have control over our lives, and that's why improv has power. It's surrendering to a lack of control. To me, it's a spiritual duty to face that on a nightly basis. Civilization itself has been a trend of getting further and further from this primal fear, and improv flips that over and gives it the finger. The only time people surrender to that lack of control is when they're in love. Improv is just falling in love over and over, night after night.

A four-track mini-album recorded live at the Telluride Jazz Festival this year, this limited-edition gem captures a beautiful, rare performance of the Jacob Fred freaks unplugged.

It's only the second time in seven years bassist Reed Mathis has played an upright, and the alien cats he strangles with it on "Son of Jah" make for one madcap psychedelic trip through the borderlands of jazz.These recordings also feature some crazy stereo panning that makes the world bend a little when listening through headphones. Available through www.jfjo.com.

Brian Haas has been knocked out by his progressive jazz band's new acoustic music.

No, really.

One performance that was slated for the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey's latest CD, "Telluride Is Acoustic," had to be cut from the record because of an unwanted noise: Haas's head hitting the piano.

"We're doing all these acoustic performances now, right? Well, I'm not used to acoustic pianos. They have this lip that comes down over the keys, and — you know me — I was moving around pretty hard one night at this festival, and I whacked my head so hard on that part of the piano that I blacked out for a second or two," Haas said in a conversation this week. "The audience saw me go back, and I caught myself just before falling over. I actually don't remember much of the show, but there were oxygen tanks and people with ice packs waiting for me when I got off stage. My forehead looked like a Klingon's.

"And then we couldn't use that track on the record because in the middle of it there's this huge (ITAL)thonk!(END ITAL). It sounds like someone whacks the piano with a baseball bat."

The new disc is still hard-hitting. Recorded live at this summer's Telluride Jazz Festival, it spotlights the Tulsa-based, nationally acclaimed jazz group in a rare acoustic mode.

The Jacob Fred trio has gained widespread attention from coast to coast during the last few years for its electric — in every sense of the word — performances. Haas punishes his Fender Rhodes keyboard while Reed Mathis plays his electric bass like Hendrix on guitar. The only truly naturally acoustic performer in the band has been drummer Jason Smart.

But occasionally — such as this weekend's rare evening performance — the guys enjoy unplugging. The results usually highlight the band's traditional roots, roots which are often more difficult to discern amid the screaming electrons.

The new acoustic yearnings grew out of the circumstances of the band's latest cross-country swing. Their 2002 Ancient Creatures Tour, the band's first solely headlining swing in several years, landed them in more upscale jazz venues, such as Yoshi's in Oakland. Most of these clubs have quality house pianos, and Haas couldn't resist.

"Whenever we'd pull up to a club and found out they had a nice acoustic grand, my Rhodes didn't even come out of the trailer," Haas said. "We'd sometimes have the clubs provide Reed with an upright bass, or we had friends that would lend them. I just have to do it when it's an option."

It's an option this weekend, for sure. Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame president Chuck Cissel encountered the Jacob Fred phenomenon in August when he met and saw the band at its first Fred Fest concert downtown. Haas continued the conversation at the Hall of Fame on Greenwood Avenue — and he saw the organization's piano.

"He came by to talk about the 2002 Autumn Jazz series, because I wanted them to be a part of it," Cissel said this week. "We have a beautiful 9-foot grand piano, and when Brian saw it and played around on it, he said, 'I've gotta do this.' They're the biggest thing in progressive jazz now, so we definitely wanted that kind of energy to come to the Hall of Fame."

The Jacob Fred boys are taking an extended rest here at home throughout the holidays. They're gigging lightly around the metro area while they woodshed a few new tunes — and on a few new instruments — before tackling a studio recording after Christmas. All six Jacob Fred albums thus far have been live recordings.

The trio will be back in the Northeast this spring. They've got residencies at two clubs throughout the month of April: Tuesday nights at the Middle East in Boston and Wednesday nights at the Mercury Lounge in New York City.

"Telluride Is Acoustic" is a limited edition disc and should be available locally at Starship Records and the midtown Borders Books and Music.

You've probably never seen the most important member of your favorite band.

She gets most of the band's money. She's instrumental to the band's success. Every member talks the most about her, and if it weren't for her unique contributions, you'd never have seen the band in the first place.

It's the van.

Yes, Roger McGuinn offered some great advice about playing guitar and wearing tight pants in his handbook song "So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star," but he left out the most important bit of advice: buy the best van you can afford.

Playing live music means hauling equipment — drum kits and doo-dads, cabinets and keisters. If you can't get to the crowd, how can they adore you?

It takes a lot of fame and money to afford the tour bus of rock legend, so most bands — even a sizeable majority of household names — travel cramped together with (and sometimes on) their equipment inside a van.

Talk to a musician and the van undoubtedly will come up in conversation. It broke down again. It nearly went off an icy precipice in Utah. While trying to sleep in the fetal position against the window, it induced a terrible cramp.

"The van is a huge investment, probably the most important piece of equipment you can buy," said Jarod Gollihare, singer-drummer for Admiral Twin.

Admiral Twin recently upgraded its ride, bidding farewell to "Old Blue," the lurching, smoking '86 Chevy that's taken this local pop band in loop-de-loops around the country for a decade. Her odometer has rolled twice.

"It was on its absolute last wheel, held together with rubber bands. It gradually lost its heating, then the air-conditioning and the transmission's about to fall out. It was making weird noises, and sometimes it was hard to start. Then it would be hard to get it to stop," Gollihare said. "We've never actually driven it to a coast. We've always flown to the coasts. I think the salt air would just disintegrate it."

The new Twin ride is a used '99 Ford, purchased with money from a flush gig in Michigan. The former owners were dog trainers.

"The dog smell is pretty much gone now, but we left the 'We Raise Golden Retrievers' sticker in the back window," Gollihare said.

"This purchase is the biggest thing that's happened to our band in months."

Keyboardist Brian Haas was trapped in Los Angeles over the Christmas holidays waiting for a custom Dodge part to be shipped to a garage — where the band's former van had languished inoperable for 19 days.

"I guess Dodge vans just totally suck," he said at the time.

For a band that plays 221 shows a year from coast to coast, the van is crucial — transport, rehearsal hall and bedroom, all in one. It's got to work.

"We just got a lemon," said bassist Reed Mathis of the thankfully departed Dodge. "Last year, that van forced us to cancel tons of gigs. We missed the whole Dirty Dozen Brass Band tour because it dropped its transmission for the second time and stuck us in a roach motel in Florida, where we laid around watching 'Behind the Music' all day with whores calling the room asking us if wanted dates."

The Odyssey's new Ford has already been on an odyssey — 47,000 miles since February, and no complaints.

The guys also do what they can to make the place feel like home.

"We took the middle two seats out and put down a futon," Mathis said. "We've got kitchen drawers up front, a cooler and a water dispenser. We try to keep at least one plant inside to keep the air clean and the energy positive. We had one spider plant that lasted a year and a half. We were amazed."

"We keep ours pretty clean and standard-looking," said guitarist Mark Haugh of the van hauling his band, Caroline's Spine. "If we don't keep it clean, we'll get in a fight. I can, well, be kind of a slob."

When the members of Caroline's Spine went shopping for their latest van — their fifth in less than a decade — they decided to go all out and get all the features they wanted and needed.

"Until now, it's always been the cheapest van we can find, then we throw 100,000 miles on it and get rid of it," Haugh said. "This one we actually special-ordered. We got a good deal and got exactly what we wanted. We have a matching white trailer, so we look like a government vehicle. That's important so you don't get pulled over."

The band's previous vans included Haugh's old Volkswagen minibus, an "old, beat-up Dodge that never worked," a green Ford and an "old Ford conversion van that was like the Good Times van, the '70s disco vehicle."

The new van has a diesel engine.

"If you close your eyes, it sounds like a bus," Haugh said.

"We got all these features, but somehow we didn't get a CD player. I still haven't figured that out."

When he was playing the cramped stage at Eclipse, back when the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey was seven members, he thought he was on top of the world.

When the band got the chance to tour and open for musical soulmates Medeski, Martin and Wood, he thought it couldn't get any better than this.

When they recorded an album live at New York City's famed Knitting Factory nightclub earlier this year, again he couldn't believe his luck.

Now he's looking ahead to the band's first sponsored jazz festival and a headlining tour across America, and he's just as amazed and thrilled as he's always been.

"I keep feeling so excited, so amazed every time things get better," he said during an interview this week. "We're so blessed."

Things have only gotten better for the Odyssey, whose steady rise through the nation's new jazz ranks culminated this year in the Knitting Factory gigs, the resulting CD, "All Is One" (out just a month and already the third highest seller in the lengthy history of Knitting Factory Records) and a mention in U.S. News and World Report as being the most promising new voice in jazz today.

The Fred boys - bassist Mathis, keyboardist Brian Haas and drummer Jason Smart - played 221 shows in 2001, but they always come home. Tulsa, in fact, means so much to them that they're launching the first (and hopefully annual) Fred Fest this weekend in town.

"This is something we've thought about for a long time, and these musicians - our friends - were totally into doing it, and doing it here," Mathis said. "We're already talking to groups about what we'll do next year."

The band hooked up with jazz pioneer Charlie Hunter after Hunter saw the band play and were wowed.

"Our people got in touch with his people, and we did a tour together," Mathis said.

The relationship lasted through two joint tours and numerous other gigs together. The day George Harrison died, Hunter sought out Jacob Fred and joined them onstage for a meaningful rendition of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

"Charlie is the real article," Mathis said. "As far as innovative, new jazz is concerned, he's the guy. He brings a different group with him for each tour. That's a thing from the old jazz era. He composes a whole body of music for this one select, hand-picked group of musicians, they have maybe one rehearsal, then they show up for the first gig and just ice it. Next time out, he's got a whole new band."

At this weekend's show, a special guest will be joining Hunter. Hint: old Jacob Fred and new Fuzz fans will dig it.

Shortly after Fred Fest, the Odyssey will depart for another long coast-to-coast tour - this time as the headliner at every show. The gigs are downright toney now, too: Yoshi's in Oakland, the Lizard Lounge in Boston, the Village Underground in New York City, the Blue Note in Las Vegas - the great jazz clubs in every city.

They'll be home at the end of October and plan to spend the holiday season woodshedding on some new instruments - Mathis is going to try and master cello and sitar - as well as composing and rehearsing new material. Then, get this: the Odyssey's going to record its first proper studio record.

Each of the band's half-dozen releases thus far have been live recordings. After Christmas, Jacob Fred has time booked on the TU campus to record a record without an audience.

They also plan to broaden their scope widely.

"We've been listening to the Flaming Lips like they're going out of style," Mathis said. "The new record is such ear candy. Both these last records have just been incredible. It's so lush, the tapestry they paint. I wanna try some of that with Jacob Fred."

In other fawning Jacob Fred news:

Two weeks ago the trio was back at the Knitting Factory in Manhattan, where they played a sold-out show. The performance was filmed by the BET network.

"I grew up watching those shows. That's how I first saw Miles Davis," Mathis said. "I didn't go out and see bands, I got it all through TV. Now some kid from Lincoln, Neb., is going to see me in the same context."

The show should air this fall.

A feature article about Mathis will appear in the September issue of Bass Player magazine.

"That's another dream come true," he said. "You know, I never took lessons. I learned a lot from reading those magazines, so it's cool to be in there now."

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey"All Is One: Live in New York City "(Knitting Factory Records)

Were this the forum for such academic criticism, I could dust off my Music Critic's Dictionary and really lay a few $20 words on you here. An examination of Tulsa's most unique band, the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, needs words like "contrapuntal," "polytonal," "harmolodics" or a host of music theory paradigms. But this isn't the place, nor is that the point of the Odyssey — or any odyssey, for that matter. No, this journey is about the travel, the path, the winds that both propel us homeward and blow us off course. It's about three insanely talented players finding their way in the world and the insane music they make simply by making the journey.

The Fred boys — keyboardist Brian Haas, bassist Reed Mathis and drummer Jason Smart — have certainly traveled. The presentation on "All Is One" is light years ahead of the Odyssey's '96 debut, "Live at the Lincoln Continental" (recorded at the Eclipse with the then seven-member band). What years ago often sounded like a bunch of yahoos banging on pianos and wanking on horns has evolved into a mythic and oxymoronic sound — considered abandon, controlled explosion, ragged grace. Closely networked — like a flock of starlings, turning with each other through the nebulous charts with a mind-boggling synchronicity — the three of them act as some kind of psychic lightning rod, absorbing the hot, high voltage of improvisational plasma and grounding it for us, delivering it in tingles and good vibrations, saving us from the shock. They are mediators, priests, shamans and "All Is One" is their finest interpretation of the cosmos yet.

Recorded live at the prestigious Knitting Factory nightclub in New York City, "All Is One" doesn't give away its setting. Rarely do we hear audience applause, and no one says, "Thank you, New York City!" from the stage. The recording is intensely focused on the instruments, which — despite the sweaty, raucous madness of a typical Fred show — is a blessing.

It allows us to really hear Reed Mathis' bass, which is a treat because Mathis doesn't play his bass very much like a bass. Rather, he tends to play it like Hendrix played his guitar, and sometimes he runs it through the eeriest effects. On "There Is No Method" his instrument sounds like a cat trapped inside a Martin guitar in a culvert -- a mildly funky exploration of the upper register, full of depth and astonishing lyricism — while on "Vernal Equinox" it's a fretless dobro under your pillow. "Lovejoy" showcases Haas' agility in switching between melodica and his Fender Rhodes piano within the same measure, all the while keeping this chugging, churning percussion romp utterly light and frothy. (The tune is named for guest percussionist Chris Lovejoy, from Charlie Hunter's band. Groove Collective percussionist Chris Theberge also is on board here.) Throughout, Smart shows himself to be the best drummer the band has had since the late Sean Layton helped found the band.

When all is said and done, your mind might not be blown — and that's OK. So many past Fred albums have worn their freak too well; "All Is One" approaches you like a guru, calmly, patiently, unafraid of speaking the truth but not preaching to you the entire gospel in one overwhelming homily. This record smooths out those rough edges, offers a spoonful of sugar with the medicine and satisfies the soul.

It's a warm October night in Manhattan, and whenever thedoors open at the Irving Plaza a swirling racket spillsinto the street, turning heads on 14th Street and in UnionSquare. A light crowd is milling around inside the Cain'sBallroom-sized music hall. They're New Yorkers, they'recool, sophisticated, surprised by nothing and amused byeverything. But the poker faces are falling, and the kidsare — gasp! — dancing.

"Jesus!" exclaims one young man the second he lays hiseyes on Brian Haas, who's wincing as if he's just beenstabbed and pounding out his pain on his poor Fender Rhodespiano. "What the (heck) is his problem?" he asks. Thing is,the man's smiling as he asks this — wonderment rather thanannoyance — and for the next half hour he hardly moves amuscle, riveted by the sonic freakout on stage.

His girlfriend catches up to him midway through the set,her face contorting in horrible confusion. Her littlemental label-gun is misfiring, unable to classify the dataflooding her aural inputs. She stammers for a moment, thensays, to no one in particular, "That's . . . that's . . .crazy. My God . . ."

"What did he say? What are they called?" the man asks,with a hint of desperation, afraid to let the moment slipaway without obtaining some kind of quantifiableinformation.

"That," I interject, proudly, "is the Jacob Fred JazzOdyssey."

• • •

Back in Tulsa, just two weeks ago. Theliving room floor of Brian Haas's house is lined with sixslumping sacks full of provisions procured from Wild OatsMarket. The coffee table is stacked with nutritionalsupplements, organic soaps and plastic bottles labeled"herbal liquid." It's almost midnight, and the band needs toblow Tulsa by 3 a.m. in order to make tomorrow's gig inIndianapolis. They've been home a day and a half.

Haas sighs. "There's still cooking to do, too," he says.

He points to the herbal liquid bottles. "That's the fuelof the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey right there," he says, inperfect earnest. "It's all about nutrition. We eat well, wekeep ourselves healthy while we're on the road — that's whatkeeps us getting along, keeps us happy."

On the dashboard of the band van is a dog-eared copy ofThe Tofu Tollbooth, a book detailing the location of everyhealth-food store in America. Turning debaucherous rock 'n'roll road myths on their heads, when the Jacob Fred JazzOdyssey boys hit a new town they make a beeline for the beepollen, throwing back wheatgrass shots at the juice barinstead of whiskey shots at the beer hall.

They've even written two new songs about their dailyfocus: "Daily Wheatgrass Shots Burned a Brand-New PathwayThrough My Brain" and "The FDA Has Made Our Food Worse ThanDrugs."

"They're instrumentals, of course, but they still get themessage out about healing yourself," Haas says. "Goes hand inhand with music, right? Especially ours."

• • •

The Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey certainly couldn't behealthier. Two years ago the band trimmed down from aseven-piece to a trio before signing a management contractthat's kept them jogging around the country constantly eversince. The incessant touring has paid off in supple, sinewynew tunes — and a new recording contract. The band iscurrently in negotiation with the independent ShanachieEntertainment label for a six-CD contract.

The trio these days comprises two founding members — Haasand Mathis — and a new drummer, Richard Haas, youngerbrother of Brian. Richard joined the group in April,replacing original percussionist Matt Edwards, who's nowmaking films in the Tulsa area. (The band's name comes fromBrian's CB handle when he was a tot. Alas, there is noJacob Fred.)

The two brothers have played together off and on sincegrade school — in fact, the first-ever incarnation of theJacob Fred Jazz Odyssey was this trio jamming at the Haashome after homework had been completed — and Brian creditsthe "spiritual unity" of playing with his lil' bro with thebigger and bigger crowds showing up to Jacob Fred showsaround the country.

"Richard is so simple, so primal. He comes out of thatAfrican school of drumming where the role of the drum is toget you dancing," Brian said in a recent interview. "It hasreally freed Reed and I to get into this free-jazzfreakout, but at the same time, everybody's dancing. We'vefinally mastered the best of both worlds."

The crowds are, indeed, growing. Some clubs, includingthe Irving Plaza, ask all patrons who they've come to seeeach night; that way they can determine whether or not theopening act was a significant draw. At that October show,there were 15 people who'd come especially to see the JacobFred trio. When the boys returned to the same venue fourmonths later, the tally was 130.

"We've refused to dumb it down or do anything the musicindustry has asked us to do, and yet people keep comingout," Brian said, with no small amount of wonder at hisband's luck.

• • •

It's not all luck, though. The Jacob Fred formula — ifthere could possibly be a construct to the band's free-formmusical journeys — takes the strength and will of Medeski,Martin and Wood and spreads it like seedy, all-fruit jam(organic, of course) across the improvisational landscapeterraced by jazz pioneers from Mingus to Monk. The word"unique" is often applied lightly in music, but thesewide-eyed, intense young men fashion songs and shows thatattract all the benefits of that word and none of theguilt.

It's paying off, too — the record deal, the bookingcontract with the London-based Agency Group, numeroushigh-profile opening slots (most recently Tower of Power,Mike Clark, Project Logic), an average of 200 mp3 downloadsdaily from band's web site, and nominations for Artist ofthe Year at the Spot Music Awards every year thus far. Butmore than physical gains, these three musicians are high ontheir own creative energies.

"Remember the song 'Good Energy Perpetuates Good Energy'from the 'Live in Tokyo' CD?" Brian asked. "For the firsttime, we're realizing that every single night. But then,playing 25 shows a month from coast to coast kind of forcesyour music to evolve. Really fast."

Funny thing about that old CD, too, the "Live in Tokyo"set. It was recorded here in Tulsa — at the Eclipse, no less— but the band soon might actually make it to Japan.

"I started noticing this Japanese couple at every one ofour shows," Mathis said. "In New York and in California, itturns out they flew out to see us. They were flipping out,they loved us. They said, `We've got to get you guys toJapan.' We're supposed to have distribution (for the CD)over there by next spring, and these are people who'vebrought other bands over before. They were shocked to hearwe hadn't been before. They heard `Live in Tokyo' andbelieved it."

The band's current CD of new material is "Self Is Gone,"its title swiped from a Tulsa World headline about thedisembarking of a University of Tulsa coach. Also availableis "Bloom," a compilation from the band's early albumsspanning '96 to '98, plus several previously unreleasedtracks.

He was the quiet one, but the silence he has left behindhas carved a cavern in the Tulsa music scene that will notbe easily filled.

Sean Layton, 29, an immensely talented Tulsa drummer,died last weekend, ending a career that invigorated thecreative spirits of countless local musicians and musicfans.

A funeral took place Monday morning, but the realtribute occurred that night at Living Arts of Tulsa whendozens of Layton's friends and fellow musicians — one andthe same, in most cases — conducted a drumming circle inLayton's memory.

Layton was the first drummer for the Jacob Fred JazzOdyssey. After leaving the band in '99, he joined StevePryor's Neighbors, which also included Jacob Fred bassistReed Mathis (who is already planning a retrospectivetribute CD of Layton's songs). Until several months ago,Layton was ubiquitous in the Tulsa music scene, providingthe pulse for projects from Mummy Weenie to Leslie Brown.

I have interviewed Layton maybe a half dozen times. Herarely spoke up, but when he did, it always mattered. Itwas usually the last word on a particular subject. Iremember a typically circuitous interview with all sevenmembers of Jacob Fred, a discussion of the band's reasonsfor recording all of its records live. Layton seized a rarepause in the harangue and said, "We're just a live band andthere's nothing we can do about it." End of discussion.

For Layton, that's how life and music was — a spiritualcompulsion. He spoke little about his art, choosing tochannel all those things he couldn't do anything about intohis drumming and singing. His work on kits for theNeighbors was certainly enough, but in that band he beganto expand his talents into composing and singing. His voicewas unmistakable — a lot of Leon Redbone and a littleCharlie Brown. He sang beautiful lyrics capturing his aweat everything from the majesty of a forest to the dancersin "Stomp."

It's those positive messages his friends will remembermost.

"I went and looked at my bookshelf after I heard that hedied," said Jacob Fred keyboardist Brian Haas this week."There are at least 30 titles in there that he gave to me.He spread so much knowledge and goodness in his life. Healso introduced me to so many people I know in the Tulsamusic scene. He affected my life in ways that will alwaysbe remembered and deeply, deeply appreciated."

As a mere listener, I am cautious about claiming that amusician affected my life as deeply as he did a fellowplayer. Then again, those of us in the crowd are whothey're making the music for, and it is their mission toaffect us. Layton never failed to lift my spirit, and Irest easier believing at least that his is now lifted ashigh as it can go.

The Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey started out several yearsago with the jazzy name but an overly funky sound. Theimprov thing was there in spots, but sometimes the boysseemed more concerned with being MCs than emissaries. Afterthe first couple of years and the first thousand Medeski,Martin and Wood bootlegs, Jacob Fred evolved into a truejazz odyssey — and never have its members so deeply exploredthe innocently psychedelic spirit of improvisation than inthis side project, a trio of keyboardist Brian Haas,bassist Reed Mathis and drummer Matt Edwards.

The Jacob Fred Trio has been playing weekly at the Bowery for sixmonths, and this single disc captures a handful of theband's best moments there, including Haas' invigorating"Good Energy Perpetuates Good Energy," a meanderingThelonious Monk medley that morphs into an original tributeto former Tulsa bassist Al Ray ("The Man Who AdjustedTonalities") and a rhapsodic opener, "Pacific," by Odysseytrombone player Matt Leland's father, Max. All of it movesin the same impressionistic space, not leaving you with anylasting tunes but leaving your ears a little looser.

The band's summer tour — it's fifth national go-round --will consist of 52 concerts, taking them to headlining gigsin New York City and Boston, south to Memphis, throughTulsa ("We might actually get one day off here at home,"Mathis said) on their way to a week of shows in Coloradoand points west. They'll return in time to play theGreenwood Jazz Festival in August.

The band is still riding the acclaim of its third album --the first to reach a national audience — "Welcome Home" onMassachusetts-based Accurate Records. The May issue of JazzTimes hit the streets this week with a story about thenation's improvisational music scene focuses on sevenbands, including Phish, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey andMedeski, Martin and Wood.

"Things have really started changing," Mathis said. "I dida Web search of radio playlists the other day. We'regetting played alongside Zappa; Medeski, Martin and Wood;and Mingus. These people haven't seen us live. They justassume we're huge because they can get our record now. ...Plus, people are recognizing the music now. At a recentshow in Chicago, Matt (Edwards, drummer) started the beatto `Seven Inch Six' from `Welcome Home,' and people startedclapping and cheering."

Fans have begun to tape shows, too — just likeDeadheads.

"And that's fine, 'cause we're an improvisational band.If you have 'Welcome Home' and three bootlegs of our shows,you've got four completely different records, really."

This weekend's all-ages show will feature some of theband's newest material, which Mathis said is on a new levelfrom the band's work thus far.

"Like Mingus or Ellington, we've begun to write for theband we're in, instead of just creating music and makingeach guy fit it and not the other way around," he said."We're able now to conceptualize the parts for the people,to give each player the chance to show his strengths."

Like most Odyssey members, Mathis has plenty of extrawork on the side. In addition to playing in the Jacob FredTrio (each Wednesday night at the Bowery), he plays in theNeighbors with local blues legend and Spot Music Awardwinner Steve Pryor. Expect to see a Neighbors CD releasedwithin the next month, featuring Pryor chiefly on pedalsteel and some very un-blues music, including covers ofJohn Coltrane and Eddie Harris.

Catch Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey while they're home, playingat 8 p.m. Saturday at The Delaware, 1511 S. Delaware Ave.It's an all-ages show, and the Western Champs — aneight-member band featuring some former Blue Collars — openthe show. Tickets are $5 at the door.

I started my musical explorations thinking Al Jarreauwas a great jazz singer, and there was a time in my life, Iconfess, when I assumed Thelonious Monk must have been areligious philosopher. Two things turned me around to theWay of Things: I heard my first Charles Mingus record, andI saw the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey live at Eclipse. Then, Iunderstood jazz.

Mingus is long gone, but the Jacob Fred boys are verymuch alive. In fact, never have I seen a band that is morealive — growing, breathing, reacting, adapting, affectingthe world around it. No longer establishing themselves aswell-trained hot-shots (the first album, "Live at theLincoln Continental") or attempting to obliterate therestraints of that training (the second album, "Live inTokyo"), this third recording — the band's national debut --finally lives up to the band's name. This is a musicalexperience that's not just a little escapist vacation, it'san odyssey — an intrepid voyage through unfamiliarterritory, a hike through strange and exciting sounds,chords and free-thinking.

It's another live album, too, as all Jacob Fred CDs havebeen. The band tried to record a studio record, but itcouldn't be done. Local knob-twiddler and punk veteranMartin Halstead was certainly up to the task, but the mojowasn't working. The unpredictable nature of Jacob Fred'scollective improvisations is something that can't be easilypinned down in a studio, and Halstead has called the studiowork, with no malice, the "sessions from hell." Two tracks on"Welcome Home" survive from those hellish hours: "Stomp," aquaint homage to the garbage can-weilding stage dancers,sung by drummer Sean Layton in his best Leon Redbone drawl,and "Road to Emmaus," a moving ballad written and led bytrumpeter Kyle Wright.

Closing this album with a referenceto Christ's rising from the dead and chatting with two guyswho didn't recognize his glory is somehow ironic comingfrom a band of immensely talented musicians who've beenkilling themselves for five years in Tulsa's tough localscene in hopes of ascending to their rightful place in themusical pantheon. (Wright has also written a 20-page piecebased on the Creation. Hadyn, shmadyn.) The sevensermons leading up to the righteous postlude are soulful,indeed.

All but the two studio tracks were captured in twoperformances at Tulsa's Club One, and they show a band thathas grown into its own not by emulating anyone but byfocusing intently on each player's gifts. The normalpattern for a jazz song is to lay down the riff, then leteach player take turns soloing. In songs like "Seven InchSix" and "MMW," Jacob Fred lays down the riff with horns, butinstead of jumping right into the ego-feeding solos, theyslowly and carefully build a song, wrapping some of BrianHaas' unusually tempered and dreamy keyboards and ReedMathis' loping bass around before opening the floor tohot-shots.

And guitarist Dove McHargue is definitely ahot-shot, bending the strings during "MMW" with such strengthand control he almost makes the thing talk. For evidence ofthe band's peaking compositional brilliance, look to both"Mountain Scream," a carefully constructed atmosphericjoyride that winds up a breezy Latin dance, and the titletrack, an on-the-spot completely improvised song thatsounds like a carefully written and labored-over gem.Controlled chaos is this band's specialty, and that, I knownow, is jazz. Real jazz. Amen.

A couple of weekends ago, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey playeda handful of Tulsa gigs in which they barely included anyof the songs on their new album, "Welcome Home," releasedthis week.

"We did three sets of all new material except two from'Welcome Home,' " said keyboardist Brian Haas. "We've justgot that much new stuff. It just keeps coming."

That kind of spirit and production rate after five hardyears together as Tulsa's most unique jazz-funk fusion bandis what impressed Russ Gershon to sign the Jacob Fred JazzOdyssey to his independent record label.

"It boggles my mind that this group has held together,playing mainly with each other and evolving as a group asopposed to going off to the big city and playing with hotshots," said Gershon, head of Massachusetts-based AccurateRecords. "These guys stuck together and pulled it up to areally high level without losing a sense of fun."

The seven members of Jacob Fred started sending tapes of theirmusic to Accurate about four years ago. The first Medeski,Martin and Wood album — a band to whom Jacob Fred isfrequently compared — was released on Accurate, so thatseemed like a logical place to start. Gershon has his owninnovative band called the Either Orchestra, and he pickedup on the band's outstanding sound.

"It was just odd enough," Gershon said of hearing JacobFred's first self-produced CD, "Live at the LincolnContinental." "Of all the tapes that are sent to me, Ilistened to this one. I liked it. It had great energy. Icalled them back — or maybe Brian called me — and they sentme another one. It was even better. We talked about whatwas next for them, and I said I'd put the next one out."

As a musician himself, Gershon said he appreciates theband's efforts to keep jazz interesting and dangerous.

"They have such a sense of abandon, which is veryimportant these days," Gershon said. "You hear a lot ofjazz-funk that's trying to sound tight and just sounds dry.These guys are loose as free improvisors. They have funwhen they're playing. There's a lot of music where peopleare too damn serious — not about their efforts but theirmessage. These guys' message is that you can be a seriousplayer and still have fun. In fact, it's better to have funbecause that's the only way a musician can survive. Havingfun doesn't mean you have to be sloppy musician. Jacob Fredhas a looseness I associate with my early Miles Davisrecords."

"Welcome Home" hit shelves across the country on Tuesday.

Accurate's other credits include the first Morphinealbum, as well as six CDs for the Either Orchestra.

Jacob Fred plays a show Thursday at Club One tocelebrate the CD release. Earlier reports noted a covercharge for the show, but admission will be free.

There's an element of jazz — real jazz — that's rarelydiscussed at charity benefit galas and music company boardmeetings. You won't hear it in much of the musicmasquerading as jazz — not lounge, not swing, certainly not"smooth jazz."

It's psychedelia.

You might only have heard the term applied to rock 'n'roll — the droning, sitar-drenched stuff from the late '60s.But while psychedelic rock 'n' roll tried to blast open thedoors of perception, inventive and free jazz tries tocreate its own keys. Creative bandleaders such as CharlesMingus and Thelonious Monk, as well as sonic pioneers fromOrnette Coleman to Cecil Taylor, pushed the boundaries ofmusic back to expose new ways of producing and perceivingthe music, new vistas of expression, undiscoveredcountries. More dopey-eyed people said, "Wow, man," at arighteous Mingus performance than any Captain Beefheartshow.

The music of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is an excellentreminder of this. Built on firm foundations of traditionaljazz, funk and even rock, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey oftenbounds off on enthralling collective improvisations, andthe result is often very "Wow, man."

"Jazz has always been psychedelic," said Brian Haas, theband's own Master of Space of Time behind the Fender Rhodeskeyboard.

Besides being a seven-piece group of well-trainedmusicians, mostly from the esteemed jazz program at theUniversity of Tulsa, Jacob Fred's music often receives morecomparisons to fringe rockers than the jazz artists inwhich the band's innovative creations are so rooted.

"Even more than Medeski, Martin and Wood, the comparisonwe hear most is Frank Zappa," said trombone player MattLeland, son of local keyboard wiz Mike Leland. "Mostly thatmeans they're saying, 'Whoa, that's really out there.'Zappa's probably the only really crazy music they've everheard."

More exploratory listeners will have the chance thisweek to hear Jacob Fred's brand of crazy music. TheTulsa-based tribe releases its third CD, "Welcome Home," viaa Massachusetts-based independent record label, AccurateRecords. The label distributes its records nationallythrough the Warner Bros. Records network, meaning "WelcomeHome" should be available at any record outletcoast-to-coast.

Take Three

"Welcome Home" is the band's third full-length disc. Thefirst two, with the cheeky titles "Live at the LincolnContinental" and "Live in Tokyo," were recorded live at theEclipse and Club One in Tulsa. For the third outing, themembers of Jacob Fred set out to record their first-everstudio record.

The band spent several months in a studio with localproducer and punk rocker Martin Halstead (N.O.T.A.),slaving over a hot mixer and trying to pin down theexplosive — and often psychedelic — Jacob Fred chemistry.Only rarely did the results live up to the band's standardsand expectations, so the bulk of the recordings werescrapped. "Welcome Home" features two studio tracks, arighteous ballad called "Road to Emmaus" and a talkiecourtesy of drummer Sean Layton's affected drawl, "Stomp";the other six instrumentals were captured once again atTulsa's Club One.

"It was necessary that we do this," Mathis said of thestudio experience. "We learned many of our strengths andweaknesses. The things we are familiar with as mainly alive band simply weren't there in the studio ... It wasgetting ridiculous doing 11 takes of one tune. We set upfor two nights in the club and had a finished album."

"It's much easier to present this music when you'rethinking about the audience and not about your own criticalears," said trumpeter Kyle Wright.

"It's just not time for us in the studio yet," Mathissaid.

When will it be time for a Jacob Fred studio record?

"When we can find a studio that can hold 500 patientpeople," McHargue said.

So, for now, the third Jacob Fred CD is another snapshotof the band's carefully reckless evolution.

JFJO, Not MMW, OK?

After this week's two Tulsa CD release parties, JacobFred again will take to the road for a tour stretching fromBoston to Los Angeles. The word is out ahead of them, too.This month's Down Beat magazine — the cornerstone newssource for jazz — sports a feature article on the band.

That article's chief comparison of the band is not, ofcourse, Zappa. It's Medeski, Martin and Wood, a morerevisionist acid-jazz organ trio that also debuted itselfto the nation via Accurate Records. Jacob Fred membersmaintain that the only thing they have in common with MMWis a spirit of innovation.

"It's the things MMW and us avoid that groups ustogether," Mathis said. "It's not what we have in common,really. The thing we really have in common is that we'reboth unclassifiable bands."

"MMW," a song on "Welcome Home," makes light of theperceived link. In this case, the MMW marks the order ofsolos in the song: McHargue, Mathis and Wright.

On tour, the band proudly carries the banner for Tulsamusic. Or is that Texas? There's a goofy story behind thenew album's name. Mathis explained: "We went to Chicago, andthe paper mentioned us, saying, 'avant-garde sounds fromTexas.' The next week in Austin, they'd somehow picked upon that, and a flier for our show said they were welcomingus home."

Haas continued, "So in the show we said, 'It's great toback. This next song is called "Welcome Home."' And Kyle wentinto an improv thing."

"So now anytime we make up a song on stage — totalimprovisation — we call it 'Welcome Home,'" Mathis said.

Celebrating its new and nationally released CD, "WelcomeHome" on Accurate Records, Tulsa's own Jacob Fred JazzOdyssey has scheduled two shows this week for its hometownfriends. Fans of all ages can catch the band's uniquefunk-jazz at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Living Arts of Tulsa, 19 E.Brady. Admission is $5 ($3 for Living Arts members) at thedoor. The second show — 21 and over — kicks off at 9 p.m.Thursday where most of the new CD was recorded: Club One,3200 Riverside Drive It's $5 at the door, too.

Last time I saw him, Brian Haas didn't really have anyhair. So when I say that Mummy Weenie provides the JacobFred Jazz Odyssey keyboard player a chance to let his hairdown, you'll have to understand that we're dealing strictlyin metaphor here. In fact, the now dormant Mummy Weenie isall about right-brain, amorphous, free-form thinking. Haasand drummer Sean Layton take a break from the frenetic paceof Jacob Fred shows for this humble side project, a triorounded out by nimble Tribe of Souls bassist Al Ray. Thislive concert, recorded at Tulsa's Club One, is a dreamy,improvisational affair, a lulling and sometimespatience-trying set of roomy instrumentals that sound likeBob James confused and struggling through a show aftersomeone spiked his drink with a Quaalude and a twist ofEcstasy. Haas occasionally meanders through his melodicspelunking via melodica, though most of these untitledtracks are worthy, rare moments of his caressing the FenderRhodes electric piano. Layton's drums and percussion injectheart as well as beat, and Ray's emotional bass playingthrows in some refreshing curveballs, particularly in thebeginning of the contemplative fourth track. Watch out forthe psychedelic studio trickery late in the set, but bythen you'll be loose enough you might not even notice theweirdness. Mission accomplished.

Norman Vincent Peale would be proud of these guys. They think sopositively. They envision their future. At least, we can only hopethis is their future. "Live in Tokyo'' — a title slightly moreambitious as this funk-jazz band's debut, "Live at the LincolnContinental'' — starts with the roar of a Tokyo stadium crowd andan announcer that introduces the band in Japanese. They may nothave come close to playing Tokyo yet, but if their ambitions playout and this great groove holds up, these guys will be on a worldtour any day.

The world wishes, anyway. At heart, the MC5 was nothin' but aparty, and Jacob Fred lives that ideal better than any fusionknock-off that's come along since today's thrift store clothes werenew on the racks. These guys meld jazz, funk and rap with thefluidity of shamans so that you're making weird snake movementswith your limbs long before your ego chimes in with how silly youlook.

"Live in Tokyo'' is a quantum leap forward form the debut disc.The sound is better, the songs are better and the whole band ismore assured. The atmospherics on such dreamy swirls as "Hymn1008'' are the epitome of control, and the rap — a highlightedelement — is heavy. "Captain Funk'' is literally a scream; neverhas praise of local eateries sounded so unbelievably righteous. Sayamen, buy the thing.

A Tulsa club act that's not guitar-bass-drums isalways a welcome relief, but the Jazz Odyssey is something else.This disc, recorded at Eclipse and Club One, captures the band'sprecarious teetering between funk and jazz. Great party disc.

Every time the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is listed in afestival bill, it's always followed by “alternative.''

It's a moniker the group can live with, even boast of, and atruer word was never written. This is a jazz band that has beenknown to have mosh pits at its shows, and its members speakintensely of how its performances “rock.'' These guys don't justwant to blow their horns — they want to blow them in your face.

“We can really freak out sometimes,'' said keyboardist BrianHaas. “A lot of times it's very chaotic.''

It's true. A Jacob Fred show can be very sweaty. People getup, shake a leg and holler — no polite applause here. Which is,after all, what jazz got people doing in the first place.

“After a show, I'm ready to just drop,'' Haas said. “Ouraudiences usually are, too. Sometimes we forget that they need abreak, too.''

Haas is the epitome of the Jacob Fred aura: he uses the word“cats'' a lot when referring to his colleagues, and his finesse onhis Fender Rhodes electric piano defies all preconceived notionshis shaved head and questionable fashion decisions may conjure.

Jacob Fred, that is, starts with the esteemed traditional andpushes it, sometimes kicking and screaming, into the '90s.

“We're picking up where Miles Davis left off as far aspushing the music forward,'' Haas said. “Since he died, themomentum in jazz has kind of slowed down, and we're trying to revit up again.''

It's a bold claim from a bunch of University of Tulsaupstarts with homework to do after the show, but if Fate is goodenough to smile on them, this band could one day stretch out thatlegacy and blow people away all over the nation.

“There are so many reissues going on, and no one's doinganything very exciting,'' said Matt Leland, on trombone. “All BlueNote (Records) does anymore is cater to the crowd that made it big,and they're all old now. Someday they'll all die off and what arethe younger ones going to have? It's a prime time to shake thingsup.''

One listen to Jacob Fred's debut CD will confirm the “shakethings up'' plan. The disc, “Live at the Lincoln Continental,''was recorded from gigs at Tulsa's Eclipse and Club One and is aperfect primer to the Jacob Fred ... well ... jazz odyssey.

Featuring material written by four of the band's eight members, theCD scans the chaos of influences that somehow coalesces into theirmusic.

“Every single one of us is coming from a totally differentplace,'' Haas said. “The more we play together, the less (themusic) becomes an individual thing and the more it becomes a groupdynamic ... We just love playing together, fortunately. A jazzensemble like this doesn't happen very often. We're all so verydifferent, but we say our thing through the same mouthpiece. That'swhat makes our shows rock.''

“Live at the Lincoln Continental'' starts off with the quickfunk of “Pimpnotic,'' then moves through the alarming chase-scenescore of “I Love Steve Haas,'' the cool suspicion of “Behind theBarricades'' and the pinnacle of barely-tamed madness, “Lorna'sCalypso.'' You name the influence; it's in there.

“There are so many schisms within jazz,'' said Leland,crafter of half the songs on the disc. “We come from a verytraditional base and add something to it. I mean, it's 1995 and wehave each grown up listening to a lot of different music that hasinfluenced us. What we produce may not sound 'traditional,' but weapproach everything from the traditional and build from there.''

These aren't punks out to throw wrenches into the system,either. The members of Jacob Fred are not whacking axes and bangingdrums because it's fun and obnoxious, and they're certainly notdoing it for the money (every gig's copious compensation must besplit eight ways). Each composition is a carefully wrought ideaforged with a youthful fury and finesse.

“We come from a strong songwriting base,'' Leland said.

“We're most concerned with conveying the idea of the songs, not somuch with how high and fast we can play. The audience gets boredwith fast notes and showing off real quick. You don't have todazzle them. They have more fun with the ideas of the songs.''

“If you're up there playing bulls—-, they know it,'' pipedin Kyle Wright, a shy guy but a powerful Gabriel on trumpet.Such wisdom from men dead set on “taking jazz to the MTVcrowd.'' Oh, the thinks they could think!

The name, incidentally, is derived from Haas' former CBhandle, Jacob Fred. It's also the name he would use in junior highwhen he would call a girl and wake up her parents. “Who is this?''they would demand. “Mr. Fred,'' he would say.

The band is Wright, Leland, Haas, Rod Mackey on saxophones,Dove McHargue on guitar (check him out on “Lorna's Calypso''!),Reed Mathis on bass, Sean Layton on drums and Matt Edwards onpercussion. All but two are or were TU students, though the band isnot affiliated in any way with the school.

“Our professors hate us,'' Haas said.

The unique crossover ability of Jacob Fred allows them toplay any kind of gig. Frequent staples of such rock dens as Eclipseand Club One, they also easily fit into the local jazz festivals.

“We can still get hired for receptions and kick back andswing,'' Haas said. “We can do it all.''

Check them out this month at a benefit for the A.D.A.M.S.Theater on Aug. 19, Aug. 29 at Eton Square Shopping Center (infront of Uno's) and Aug. 31 at Cafe 66 in Norman.

The CD can be found at Starship Records and Tapes, MohawkMusic, Media Play, Sound Warehouse, Camelot Music in Eastland Malland the CD Warehouse.

These online "clips" reproduce a self-selection of my journalism (music etc) during the last 20+ years. It's a lotta stuff, but it only scratches the surface. I do not currently possess the time or resources to digitize the whole body of work. These posts are simply a bunch of pretty great days at the office.